CRAIG Beattie has been backed by Tony Mowbray to silence the West Bromwich Albion boo-boys.

The Baggies striker grabbed the winning goal in Albion's 2-1 victory against Leicester on Saturday.

But Mowbray has been concerned by small sections of the Albion supporters turning on Beattie during recent games, with Leicester boss Ian Holloway even claiming that the Scotland international had been booed during a reserve game last week.

Beattie has struggled to settle after scoring just three goals since his £1.25million move from Celtic during the summer.

The striker has found first-team opportunities hard to come by due to illness, injury, indifferent displays and the goalscoring exploits of Kevin Phillips, Ishmael Miller and Roman Bednar.

But Mowbray feels Beattie has the quality to win over the Hawthorns' faithful.

"I would suggest that if Craig keeps scoring goals like he did at the weekend then things will change," said Mowbray. "You can tell by the body language of any player when he's not in the team that they're not right.

"He's come down from Scotland hoping to make a big impact and for whatever reason, and I think the international breaks have had a big bearing on that, he hasn't been able to do it.

"He hasn't been able to make that impact and then there's the impact that Ishmael Miller has made.

"All these things contribute to where he is in his own mind but the weekend won't have done him any harm.

"It wasn't that long ago that people thought we had a world beater on our hands when he scored a hat-trick against Heerenveen.

"Craig, like most footballers, breeds through confidence and I'm sure he's aware of any negativity towards him that's why I'm so delighted that he got such a fantastic goal."

Mowbray also insisted that Beattie's strike at the Walker's Stadium was no fluke.

The 23-year-old has few problems hitting the target during training.

"He made it look easy and it was a very deliberate finish," added Mowbray. "He does that every day in training - it wasn't a fluke, it was a bender into the top corner, which is almost a trademark finish for him."